NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Incisive Media’s Law
Technology Newstoday announced law firm and in-house law
department winners in its sixth annual Law
Technology News Awards program. The awards recognize outstanding
innovation by law firms and law departments in their use of technology.
Awardees in the law firm categories are: BartkoZankel; Fish &
Richardson; Constance Hoffman, chief information officer of Bryan Cave;
and Joy Heath Rush, director of training at Sidley Austin. The winner of
the in-house law department award is the Vulcan Materials Company Legal
eXchange Team, while Miriam A. Buhl, pro bono counsel at Weil, Gotshal &
Manges was selected as the pro bono award winner and Donna Payne was
named Consultant of the Year. These individuals and firms, plus vendor
winners in 25 technology categories, will be honored at the LTN
Awards Dinner, at LegalTech
New York on February 2nd.

“As in past years, each of these winners has demonstrated leadership,
creativity and innovation in using technology to meet legal challenges
and serve their clients. We applaud their achievements and look forward
to celebrating their accomplishments at our upcoming LTN Awards
dinner,” said Monica Bay, editor in chief of the magazine.

Most Innovative Use of Technology During a Trial: BartkoZankel
created a system that helped successfully handle e-discovery for a
groundbreaking anti-trust case involving more than 19 million electronic
pages and 1,100 boxes of hard copy materials. The system is now
available for other small firms and is gaining recognition for leveling
the e-discovery playing field.

Most Innovative Use of Technology for a Pro Bono Project: To help
make the practice of pro bono more effective and efficient for its 1,300
attorneys in 20 offices, Miriam Buhl and others at Weil teamed with Pro
Bono Net, an organization that serves the public interest legal
community. Weil became the first user of Pro Bono Manager, PBN’s new
commercial software product that integrates content from the public
interest legal community (including training events, volunteer
opportunities and news) with powerful pro bono reporting, knowledge
management and lawyer matching tools.

Most Innovative Use of Technology by a Law Firm: Fish &
Richardson was selected for development of OutLaw, an in-house
application that allows the firm’s attorneys to access their documents,
docket and CRM contacts within Outlook; search the firm’s 9 million-plus
documents; and enter time billings. OutLaw shows that a strong in-house
software development team paired with motivated attorneys can create
compelling and easy-to-use software.

IT Director of the Year: Constance Hoffman, CIO of Bryan Cave,
was named IT Director of the Year for her ability to solve real legal
and business problems, to partner with clients and to create innovative
options. Examples cited by the judges included Web-based analytics
developed by Hoffman to help client Wal-Mart gather and evaluate
diversity information for their hundreds of law firms.

Consultant of the Year: Donna Payne from Donna Payne Consulting
was named as the inaugural winner in this new category, introduced this
year. She was recognized by the judges for her substantial contributions
to both her clients and to the industry through volunteer participation
and community activism.

Champion of Technology: Joy Heath Rush, director of training at
Sidley Austin was selected for her 20-plus years as an innovator, leader
and mentor, both within her firm and throughout the legal technology
community. As president of the International Legal Technology
Association, she has worked tirelessly to identify and promote emerging
technologies, and to educate the legal community at large on them.

Most Innovative Use of Technology by an In-House Legal Department: Vulcan
Materials Company receives 4,000 paper legal invoices each year from its
more than 125 outside law firms. The company’s Legal eXchange Team
developed a centralized system that accelerates legal bill review and
approval, ensures compliance with predetermined billing guidelines and
creates a comprehensive view of legal spending.

Law firm and in-house nominations were solicited throughout the year
from the magazine’s subscribers, and through the publication’s Web site.
The recipients were selected by an independent panel of three jurors,
all members of LTN’s Editorial Advisory Board: Andrew Z. Adkins
III, director of the Legal Technology Institute at the University of
Florida Levin College of Law, Fredric Lederer, law professor and
director of the Courtroom 21 Project at the College of William and Mary,
and David Whelan, director of the Cincinnati Law Library Association.

Additional information on the awards and winners will be available in
the March issue of Law Technology News and on the magazine’s Web
site at www.lawtechologynews.com/awards.

Law Technology News provides timely information and insight into
the latest technologies, products and services available for the legal
marketplace. Each month, LTN features new product announcements,
as well as monthly articles and columns written by industry experts and
senior law firm decisionmakers. LTN is distributed to more than
40,000 selected subscribers and is also available on at www.lawtechnologynews.com.
The magazine is published by Incisive Media.